


sneak attacks

by justsomejerk



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Bisexual Kyle Valenti, Boys Kissing, Bros loving bros, Forehead Kisses, Kyle is just going in for a vibe check bro, Kyle's pop culture knowledge is improving and so are his references, M/M, Mentions of Past Michael Guerin/Alex Manes, Mutual Pining, Swiftie Kyle Valenti, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 11:37:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20656610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justsomejerk/pseuds/justsomejerk
Summary: Touch-starved Alex doesn’t know what to make of it when Kyle starts giving him forehead kisses when he’s stressed out.





	sneak attacks

**Author's Note:**

> For the Kylex discord server crew. Thanks for always encouraging my insane Kylex ramblings.

The first time it happens, Alex is so startled he doesn’t have time to respond before Kyle turns away and leaves. He’s been down in the Project Shepherd bunker for three days straight, trying to crack one particularly stubborn piece of encryption on the Caulfield data. He’s barely taken breaks, too laser-focused on the task at hand. He’s barely cognizant of the ache in his shoulders, the tension headache resting at the base of his neck, his own earthy scent from not showering for days. Though the timing is hazy to him, Kyle has been stopping by periodically, leaving water and takeout meals on the desk and gently chiding him about getting some daylight. 

This time, he doesn’t bother speaking, he just plunks down a plastic bag of tupperware containers beside the laptop and pulls one out, releasing a spicy scent that promptly transports Alex back to childhood dinners at the Valenti household. “Is that your mom’s pozole?”

“Oh, you’re alive? And actually talking to me?” Kyle smirks as he sets utensils down within reach. 

Alex runs a hand through his hair absentmindedly and tries not to outwardly cringe when he feels how greasy it is. “I talk.”

“There are tamales too. And rice.” Kyle waves a hand at the bag. “Just.. eat something, Manes. And shower. You’re lucky I like you so much or else I wouldn’t keep coming down to this poorly-ventilated hovel just to take care of you.”

Alex scowls in his general direction but doesn’t look up from where he is eyeing the stew, trying to keep from looking too ravenous. He is so far beyond tired and worn down that the situational awareness he’d honed during his days with the Air Force is all but gone. That must be why he is taken aback when he sees Kyle quickly swoop down and enter his personal space but doesn’t process it until after he has placed a soft kiss on his forehead and sprinted away towards the door without another word.

He sits frozen in place for a few moments, the ghostly feeling of Kyle’s lips on his forehead lingering. Then he looks towards the door and, knowing he’s alone, wonders aloud, “What the fuck?”

-

He returns the next day. Alex knows that because Kyle’s bizarre _ kiss _ \- what the fuck was Kyle Valenti doing kissing him on the forehead?? - shook him out of his daze enough to take stock of himself. He even took a brief walk outside the bunker, removed his prosthetic to massage his sore stump, and made an effort to clean himself up in the bunker’s bathroom. That’s how he discovered that Kyle (who else would have done it?) had stocked it with everything he’d need, including towels and fruity-smelling soaps. 

When he hears the door to the bunker opening, he has moved from his hunched position in front of the wall of computer monitors to sit at the main desk in the centre of the room. Plus he smells like watermelon now, so Kyle can’t be _ too _ frustrated with him, right?

That’s when he hears the sharp sound of metal dragging along the concrete floor and he looks up to see Kyle, looking weary as hell and more than a little mad, dragging a folded-up cot down the stairs towards him. 

He’d been so proud of himself for making an effort and now he just feels guilty again. “Is that really necessary?”

“Is it necessary to fuck up your back by constantly falling asleep sitting up in that shitty desk chair?” He says it sharply as he shoves the cot until it comes to a stop in a shadowy corner. Without waiting to hear the response, he goes straight to a locker where Alex is surprised to see he had stored blankets and a pillow.

“Kyle, you know it’s important that we get all this over with. It will be better in the long run if we know now-” Alex doesn’t see the pillow to the face coming, though he catches it in his arms before it drops to the floor. He looks at Kyle with a perturbed and only slightly amused expression.

Walking back across the room, Kyle meets his gaze looking willfully unmoved by Alex’s astonishment and lays the blanket out on the cot. “Get some sleep. I’ll come back in the morning and then we’ll go over whatever you’ve found.” He crosses his arms and gives Alex an expectant look.

Apparently Kyle is done letting him get away with his excuses. Feeling bashful, he walks over to the cot and sets the pillow down, taking a seat beside it. He dares glance up at Kyle, hoping his frustration has abated slightly. He doesn’t know when Kyle’s approval became something he craved, but he’s realizing being without it is a greater loss than he could have imagined.

Kyle rolls his eyes at his uncertain face and points at his shoes.

Feeling completely out of sorts, Alex finds himself instinctually removing his shoes at the nonverbal request and lays down under the blanket.

This time he sees it coming with a just a few seconds warning.

“You really do need to rest, Manes.” Kyle leans down, a hand resting on Alex’s shoulder gently as he drops a kiss on his forehead, lingering a second longer than last time. Alex notices he swallows hard before straightening and leaving the bunker, turning off the lights on his way out. 

He stares at the ceiling for a few minutes in the dark room, listening to the quiet whirring of the hard drives, before shaking his head to himself and whispering as if someone would hear, “Okay, but really.. what the fuck?”

-

“You’re staring at your Dora the Explorer backpack like it’s broken your heart.” 

Alex shakes his head to dispel his dark thoughts about their plans. He goes back to filling up his backpack with supplies as Kyle continues to wait for a response across the bunker desk. “Have you even watched Dora the Explorer, Kyle?”

He shrugs. “Well, no. Why? Am I using the reference wrong?”

He rolls his eyes, picking up a water bottle. “Your references are always wrong.” 

“Not my Taylor Swift references!” He flashes a finger gun at Alex, along with a jubilant smile.

“You’re not picking the music on this road trip, Kyle. I will not endure you singing along to Speak Now for another four-hour drive.”

“As if you haven’t fallen in love with my singing voice.” When Alex sighs deeply and looks away, dropping their banter, Kyle frowns. “Hey, are you still worried about not telling Michael?”

“It just feels like we’re hiding something from him if we don’t at least give him a warning that we’ve discovered another facility among the data. We could at least tell Isobel before we head out, I guess. What if this place is another Caulfield?” Alex is clutching the straps of the backpack, his knuckles stretched taut. 

Kyle moves around the table, gently pulls Alex’s tense hands off the bag and calmly finishes packing, closing it up and holding it between them for Alex to take. “This is only recon. We’re not going inside. And if we find something they should all know about, I’ll be the one to tell him. You don’t have to force yourself to see him out of guilt, Alex. I’ve got you.” They’re eye-to-eye, each of them holding onto the backpack between them. Kyle’s eyes crinkle in that way they always do when he’s being particularly sweet. Alex remembers it from their days playing in treehouses and he feels something heavy but warm in his belly as Kyle moves closer and pulls at his chin, leaning up enough to reach his forehead and chastely press his lips there while his hands lean on Alex’s bare forearms.

This time when he pulls back neither of them look away or rush to say anything further. They just stand in the moment, letting it sink over them. 

Breaking the spell, Kyle pulls his hands back and moves towards the door. “Let’s get going. Taylor Swift’s _ Lover _ isn’t going to sing along to itself.”

-

“You know we don’t actually have to go in, Alex. We can just go back to the cabin and watch the next Star Wars. I’m really hoping for more monologues about sand.” Alex can feel Kyle staring at him from the passenger seat as he keeps his eyes focused forward on the front door of the Wild Pony. “No one actually expects either of us at Max Evans’ fake ‘welcome back from Europe’ but actually ‘welcome back to the land of the living’ party.”

Alex licks his lips and barely glances over at Kyle before setting his face to a determined expression. “We provided the intel that brought him back. Besides, we’re here for Liz. And Isobel. For some reason she’s decided we need to be friends and she basically harassed me until I promised I’d be here.”

“Alright. But we don’t have to stay long, okay?” 

Alex hears the attempt at comfort in his tone and he smiles. “Kyle, I’m fine. I’ve actually been texting with Maria a little bit. I think we’ll be okay, eventually. It’s just going to be my first time seeing both of them.”

“You’re still in love with him.” It’s strange. Since breaking out of his self-imposed exile down the dark hole that was the recently-disbanded Project Shepherd, Alex has picked up on how little effort Kyle puts into hiding his jealousy and affection with him. He wonders how long that’s been the case. How could he, a trained airmen who has survived deadly combat situations, overlook something so overt? The worst part is Kyle has made it clear he has no expectations of him. He seems happy to simply be a supportive friend with an unrequited crush. Eager, even. 

He turns to face Kyle. “No, I’m not. Of course I love him, I’m always going to. But this is going to be my first time seeing Michael since I-” He stops himself, gazing down and fidgeting with the rings on his fingers. “Since I decided to let go. To move on. That’s it.” He smiles up at his best friend, keeping himself still and within arms reach. Waiting.

But Kyle doesn’t do it this time. He frowns, opens the door and gets out of the SUV. Alex stays where he is, watching him walk around the car to wait by his door. Did he do something to upset him? Was he not clear about who he wanted to move on _ with_? Considering his long history of misunderstandings with Michael, probably not. _ But tonight’s not the night_, he tells himself.

His car door opening disrupts his train of thought.

“What’s wrong? Is the new prosthetic bothering you?” Alex’s eyes go straight to the vein on Kyle’s forehead, always especially prominent when he frowns with concern. He doesn’t try to resist the smile that comes to him when he remembers their recent drunken night at Saturn’s Ring when Alex downed more tequila than he has in forever and declared the vein’s name to be George, christening it with a round of shots for an excited group of sorority girls visiting from New Mexico State down in Las Cruces. 

“George is worried about me, I see.” Alex looks up at him with a wry grin.

Kyle is puzzled for a moment before his face relaxes with a chuckle. “So is Kyle. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” It’s not entirely true - he hasn’t spent enough time breaking in the new prosthetic. But that just means he will have to take Kyle up on his offer to keep their appearance brief. More time on the couch, his thighs laying over his best friend’s lap, while he pauses Revenge of the Sith every five minutes so Kyle can continue his ridiculous running commentary that Alex loves so much. 

He steps down from the car, shuffling a bit clumsily and Kyle reaches an arm out for Alex to lean on if he chooses to. 

He chooses to. Not because he needs to - he might be exaggerating his issues just a bit - but there’s something addictive about the way Kyle’s face lights up when Alex needs him.

Clutching Kyle’s arm tighter than necessary, he locks eyes with him and smiles with what he hopes is a vaguely seductive expression. “Thanks, Kyle.” He ducks his head down while maintaining eye contact. This time Kyle is relaxed enough to lean in without hesitation or conscious thought and lay a lingering kiss just above his right eyebrow, along the scar.

Alex closes his eyes in hopes the moment will stretch on, but Kyle gently tugs on his arm. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

-

Alex is back hunched over his laptop, but now he’s doing so in a beam of light from the cabin’s kitchen window. He’s drinking his coffee from a Roswell Community Medical mug, wearing a thin Air Force shirt and checking the time, frowning. He just started doing freelance cybersecurity work a few weeks back and it’s been great, but he was meant to be finished an hour ago and now Kyle is on his way over after an 18-hour shift. He hates keeping Kyle waiting, especially because they’ve both been too busy to see each other for nearly a week. Not to mention Kyle will inevitably have _ many _ thoughts on The Last Jedi, and Alex wants to give them enough time tonight to have a few drinks afterwards before Kyle turns in early thanks to his exhausting work schedule. 

Alex is still typing away when Kyle lets himself in without a knock. He glances over with an apologetic expression, taking in Kyle’s disheveled scrubs and the paper bag full of what is hopefully Mama Valenti’s homemade carne asada. “I’m really sorry, I’m gonna be finished soon!”

Kyle smiles easily, loping over to the kitchen table and setting the bag down. “No problem. I was hoping I could take a shower first anyway.” He goes to hover behind Alex, spying on the incomprehensible coding language on the screen and steals a sip of coffee.

Alex shifts around in his seat and swats at his arms to get the mug back. “Go ahead. I’ll just be here, stressing out about this.” He waves vaguely towards his laptop.

Kyle laughs, a hand running down the thin fabric covering his abs in a way that is not distracting Alex _ at all _from the words coming out of his mouth, thank you very much. “You’ll figure it out. You’re brilliant, Alex Manes.” He taps the back of the chair Alex is sitting on and heads out of the room, pulling his shirt off as he goes, leaving Alex to sneak only a brief glimpse of his bare back as he disappears down the hall, humming to himself.

“No sneak attacks today, I guess.” He murmurs to himself as he returns to his work.

“Pardon?” After a few seconds, Kyle peaks his head back around the corner into the kitchen. “Did you say ‘sneak attacks’?”

“Uh.” Alex’s eyes are wide and he casts around for some kind of lie. Kyle crosses his arms over his toned chest and smirks, tilting his head to watch him frantically search for a response. Instead he lets out a breath and cries, “Forehead kisses! The forehead kisses!” Kyle’s eyebrows shoot up and his jaw drops. He’s speechless as Alex stands and continues sputtering. “You keep sneak attacking me with affection when I’m least expecting it!”

Kyle’s arms drop to his sides as he leans against the doorframe. “I thought it was comforting. I can stop-”

“Yes! It was! It is. But you haven’t done it in two weeks!” Now that it has started spilling out, it doesn’t make sense to stop. After spending so many years bottling things up with Michael only for their connection to combust so spectacularly, just being honest for once feels like a step forward. Even if it meant losing his best friend. “Did I do something wrong? I thought- I thought things were changing between us.”

Kyle’s face is unreadable. He doesn’t break eye contact with Alex as he takes a few steps forward until they are chest-to-chest. He places his hands on either side of Alex’s face and runs his palms down until he’s cradling his jaw. His eyes follow the trail, patiently taking in every detail. He uses only the softest pull of his fingertips to bring Alex’s head down and, with a fond smile, presses a kiss to the left side of his best friend’s forehead. Alex’s eyes close helplessly under Kyle’s power. His gentle touch shifts his head to the other side and he feels a graze to the right side this time. Next Kyle’s lips are parted slightly as they press into the worried crease between his eyebrows. Alex can feel the tension easing out of his body with each touch Kyle carefully, patiently, methodically bestows on his waiting face. His fingers stroke under his chin, almost a tickling sensation, as he continues tenderly kissing a trail across and down Alex’s face.

Alex thought he could only ever feel treasured and precious like this with one person, and that part of his life was over. But his lips fall open as Kyle reaches his cheeks, the kisses becoming greedier as they come closer and closer to the moment Alex is breathlessly awaiting. His heart is beating in his ears and he clenches his fists at his sides to keep from turning when Kyle plants a torturously slow and chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth. His breathing is hoarse as Kyle pauses, resting their foreheads together, hovering inches from his lips. Alex opens his eyes to look down at his reddened lips. He sees Kyle has his own eyes closed now and he smiles before taking his head in his hands and bringing their lips together, finally. Kyle melts into him entirely, his arms moving under Alex’s shirt to clench tightly around his waist, fingers digging into his skin and Alex’s hands roam through his hair as their lips desperately move together, Alex’s tongue roughly exploring his best friend’s mouth, savouring the taste. It’s not a conscious thought, but as their kisses continue, growing languid and long, Alex realizes he doesn’t _ need _ to savour this moment so hysterically. With a desperation as if the taste and feel of Kyle underneath his mouth and hands was already slipping away from him before the moment could come to an end. He doesn’t need to be desperate because nothing is slipping away from him.

This is only the beginning.

They open their eyes and smile. Alex cradles Kyle’s face and plants a tender kiss on his forehead.


End file.
